Business & Tech
Pumpkins, Games and Petting Zoos - Where to Find It All
With the Solano Avenue pumpkin patch gone, here are a few places where you can still get the pumpkin patch experience.
Shoppers can snag a couple of pumpkins when they pick up healthy organic school lunches and Two Buck Chuck at Trader Joe’s. Lucky’s and Safeway also offer a bargain squash you can dig out of a bulk bin. What they lack is the complete pumpkin patch experience.
That family tradition has become harder to come by. As reported on the Albany Patch, the operator lost money on last year’s patch and decided not to run one this year.
Fans of the most favorite winter squash have several local options.
Emeryville
The Speer Family Farms offers locally grown coastal pumpkin at their patch in Emeryville. The Patch has pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes, jumpy houses, petting zoo and a hay maze.
Speer Family Farms
5600 Christie Ave Emeryville, CA
Hercules
The Pick of the Patch Pumpkins in Hercules offers dozens of jumpy houses, slides, a petting zoo, obstacle courses for kids and pumpkins galore.
Pick of the Patch Pumpkins
4000 San Pablo Ave. (Intersection of Hwy 4 and Hwy I-80, 94547)
Berkeley
Each year the Westbrae Nursery on Gilman Street offers a small pumpkin patch that raises funds for a local school. This year the patch benefits Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley.
The Westbrae Nursery
1272 Gilman St, Albany, CA